The Purdue Industrial Engineering Graduate Students Organization (IEGSO) chose Honnappa after his nomination by three graduate students. One of the students wrote, "Dr. Harsha Honnappa is an outstanding mentor because he is dedicated to helping us reach our full potential. He encourages and supports us, yet challenges us to understand the fundamentals and intuition behind the mathematics. We are very grateful for this level of dedication and training. Having a mentor like Dr. Honnappa encourages us to keep our own expectations high and believe in our own abilities as researchers."

He was honored at a reception on April 13 in Grissom Hall's Boehm Cafe.

This award was created by the College of Engineering (CoE) to help graduate students recognize fantastic mentors for specific characteristics. At least three graduate students must nominate the winning mentor.